10:00 PM PST on Saturday, January 9, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

San Bernardino County supervisors will consider a proposal Tuesday to turn the duties of treasurer-tax collector over to the auditor-controller’s office.

Combining the two independently elected positions would save up to $1 million a year at a time when the county is anticipating a large budget shortfall due to declining sales and property taxes, according to a report from Assistant County Administrator Dean Arabatzis.

The proposal has been harshly criticized by former Treasurer-Tax Collector Dick Larsen, who resigned in July after 11 years in the position. He called it a back-room deal that officials are trying to sneak by before the June election.

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When a person has a good thing going, you would think they would leave just leave it be.

For former San Bernardino County executive Mark Uffer this concept appears too high of a hurdle.

A full one year’s severance including all the benefits, bells, and whistles, hasn’t quite done the trick

Mr. Uffer has apparently been quietly spinning several tales out in the community in a heroic face-saving endeavor.  I guess you gotta try. Right?

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January 8, 2009

A former district attorney’s office evidence technician has filed a $1.538 million claim against San Bernardino County and district attorney Mike Ramos, alleging she was mistreated and subjected to first a hostile work environment and then a pretext firing in the aftermath of revelations that she had carried on an affair with Ramos that ended nearly five years ago.

Cheryl Ristow, who had worked with the district attorney’s office under her former name, Cheryl Barnes, in the capacity of evidence technician prior to Ramos’ election as district attorney embarked on a torrid affair with Ramos that terminated in February 2005.

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Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 01/09/2010 06:07:13 AM PST

CHINO – Councilman Art Bennett on Tuesday is expected to ask the council to relieve Roman Nava of his duties as parks and recreation commissioner because of his plans to run for a council seat.

Bennett said Nava’s campaign to fill one of three open council seats in November is a vote of no-confidence in the people – Councilmen Peter Rogers and Ed Graham as well as Mayor Bill Kruger – who currently have those seats.

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Matt Wrye, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/09/2010 06:11:51 AM PST

It’s time for a change.

That’s the message a report gives to Inland Empire leaders trying to salvage the two largest industries that molded this region’s economy into what it is today: construction and goods movement.

“The Inland Empire must sooner or later focus on something else,” said Manfred Keil, one of the authors behind the report, and a former chairman of The Robert Day School of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna College.

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Meg Whitman

MOST OBSERVERS GIVE THE EX-CEO HIGH MARKS

By Jack Chang
jchang@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

In just the last month, Meg Whitman has been called both one of the top 10 CEOs in the world and a “monster” who plays dirty when she doesn’t get her way.

Those who have studied her 10-year tenure leading the online auction firm eBay call her a disciplined chief executive who quickly capitalized on the company’s strengths. Her critics say she made major missteps at eBay, leaving behind her a trail of litigation.

Now Whitman is the Republican front-runner for California governor, vying to turn corporate glamour into votes. She’s campaigning to be “the CEO of this state,” and making her eBay years the centerpiece of her pitch.

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Gov. Schwarzenegger seeks to live up to being “The Collectinator.” (Ken James/bloomberg News)

By Karl Vick and David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 10, 2010

On Rough & Tumble, a popular California public policy Web site, the lead headline Saturday read: “Arnold to DC: Give Us The Money, Nobody Gets Hurt.”

The Golden State is racked with 12.3 percent unemployment and a budget shortfall of $20 billion, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) warned Friday of even deeper cuts to programs without $6.9 billion in new federal funds. In unveiling an austere budget proposal, he went a giant step further with the age-old state gripe about unequal distribution of federal dollars — actually writing the federal funds in as a budget stopgap.

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Marisa Lagos,Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writers

Sunday, January 10, 2010

(01-10) 04:00 PST Sacramento —

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has demanded more federal dollars to help balance the state’s budget, but local officials say he also sent a clear message to cities and counties throughout California: The state is coming for your money, too.

Included in the governor’s proposal to bridge a $20 billion budget gap are measures that could strip more than $1 billion in transit funds from local jurisdictions, put more inmates in already overcrowded county jails, and require counties to pay more for child welfare and care for blind, disabled and elderly people.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Arnold Schwarzenegger achieved fame and fortune by starring in celluloid fantasies, so it may be fitting that his final state budget proposal would be so disconnected from economic and political reality.

With the state still facing huge deficits, the governor bases his 2010-11 budget on such fanciful elements as persuading the federal government to cough up an extra $7 billion, asking voters to reverse themselves and shift money from protected pots for mental health and children’s programs, overhauling transportation financing, and persuading state employee unions to accept pay cuts and increases in workers’ pension and health care costs.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Joe Garofoli
SF Chronicle – Politics Blog

No love from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for Guv Schwarzenegger’s idea to get $ 6.9 billion from the fed government to help plug

California’s budget hole. The Speaker — in SF Saturday for a New Year’s…

No love from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for Guv Schwarzenegger’s idea to get $6.9 billion from the fed government to help plug California’s budget hole.

The Speaker — in SF Saturday for a New Year’s Party (yes, really..geez, are we THAT desperate for a party in SF) — told me so her very self:

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California Reeling

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: January 9, 2010

LOS ANGELES — From San Diego to Mount Shasta, voters are expressing mounting disgust over California’s fiscal meltdown and deteriorating services, and they are offering scores of voter initiatives that seek to change the way the state does business.

Over 30 such initiatives — among over 60 total initiatives so far — are now wending their way toward the ballot box. Every day, it seems another vexed voter adds a proposal to the fray.

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RIVERSIDE COUNTY: The assessor puts the figure at 10.5 percent, which translates to $217 billion.

10:00 PM PST on Saturday, January 9, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

Last year was a busy one for Riverside County’s property assessor.

With the economy still in turmoil, the Riverside County assessor processed a record number of property tax reductions and appeals.

The office temporarily reduced the assessed value for 384,289 properties, up from 200,190 in 2008, according to the department’s recent annual report.

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Rep. Buck McKeon

Congressman blasts Obama’s climate change bill, approach to terrorism

January 09, 2010 5:51 PM
BY NATASHA LINDSTROM

VICTORVILLE • Republicans have a chance at reclaiming the House majority this year, taxpayers could be hurting badly if cap-and-trade legislation becomes law and the Obama administration is not taking anti-terrorism efforts seriously enough, U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon told the Daily Press.

In an exclusive interview in Victorville, McKeon discussed some of his most pressing national concerns, such as how the recent al-Qaida bombing attempt on a U.S. airliner revealed the urgent need to beef up federal efforts to combat terrorism.

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Getting in now more problematic

Maritza Velazquez, Staff Writer
Created: 01/09/2010 11:37:36 PM PST

As a record number of students apply to California State University campuses, transfer and high school students are expected to find it more difficult to get their foot in the door in the fall.

And more students are opting to go out of state or attend private colleges, which are also seeing a record number of applicants, officials said.

Due to a 21 percent budget cut, the Cal State system has launched an initiative to cut a combined 40,000 students at 23 CSU campuses over a two-year period.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 01/09/2010 06:11:02 AM PST

San Bernardino County grew last year, but its schools did not – a trend officials can’t explain but concede is draining millions from county schools.

The county’s public schools lost more than 7,800 students, or 1.8 percent of total students, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Dan Evans, a spokesman for County Superintendent of Schools Gary Thomas, said his office noticed the drop in students but isn’t sure what to make of it, especially since school growth and shrinkage doesn’t appear to be concentrated in any one part of the county.

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